The big thaw

Although comparisons with 2005's March of the Penguins is unavoidable, the well-shot Arctic Tale is less a traditional National Geographic-style documentary than a cuddly "See how they're just like us" children's story set beneath the undulating northern lights. Filmmakers Adam Ravetch and Sarah Robertson spent some 15 years filming various animals in their icy native habitats before crafting the footage into a narrative (with a kid-friendly narration, courtesy of Queen Latifah) about the young walrus Seela and her polar bear doppelganger Nanu.

Almost by accident, the filmmakers also recorded some of the first unassailable evidence that the polar ice cap is shrinking as the sea becomes warmer. As the summers grow inexplicably longer and the ice shelf begins to melt, Nanu and Seela face unforeseen obstacles: namely, how to find the summertime food they'll need to keep them alive during the winter months.

If Arctic Tale is sometimes a little too pat, a little too cute, bear in mind that this film's target audience is the post-Barney, pre-Bratz set, and not James Audubon. The earth's offspring, human and otherwise, are still quite literally the future, and Arctic Tale is right to ask its final ominous question: What will the rapidly warming future hold for Seela and Nanu's kids, and what might it hold for ours?